Vicary at the driving-wheel, had run across
the moor and down the steep hill, and was jolting over the cobble-stones
of the narrow main street of Chagmouth. It stopped outside the Post
Office, for the principal reason that if it went any farther it would be
impossible for it to turn round, and the girls, dismounting, took their
satchels or piles of books, said good-bye to one another, and scattered
to their respective homes. Beata and Romola crossed the bridge that
spanned the brook, skirted the harbour, climbed a flight of steps cut in
the solid rock, and reached a house which stood on the top of a high crag
overlooking the sea. It was an ideal spot for an artist to live, and it
was chiefly for its glorious view that Mr. Castleton had chosen it. He
was intensely sensitive to his surroundings, and preferred a picturesque
cottage, however inconvenient, to the comforts of an unaesthetic, bow-
windowed, modern, red-brick, suburban residence.
"Romance before everything!" he declared.
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